Saint Brigid is presented in plain monasterial robes, rather than in regalia that would show her leadership position as abbess. Accounts of her life record a humble woman of the land, who spent much of her time outdoors. The statue holds a flame, representing the legend of a sacred flame that continually burned in Kildare, perhaps even in pre-Christian times. Brigid kept the flame tended at her monastery in Kildare to represent the Light of Christ. Viking raids put out the flame in the 1200’s, but it was relit in 1993. The statue also holds a staff, as Brigid was considered a shepherd leader of many, and is the patron saint of agricultural animals.

This modern, bronze sculpture was installed at the Tully Holy Well pilgrimage site in 2001, in celebration of the millennium. The site of the well has been a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages and was the original location of the monastery’s water wheel. The sculpture was commissioned by the Brigidine Sisters and Cairde Bhride (Friends of Brigid).